North to Alaska - but first to Seattle

Seattle, Washington is a city and a cruise port I had never visited. So when we were planning out a pre-cruise hotel stay, we decided to extend our pre-cruise visit by an extra night. We flew in on the Sunday afternoon before our Oceania cruise began on Tuesday. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Seattle/Downtown for two nights so that we could do a Seattle city tour on Monday. The hotel included a self-serve buffet breakfast but their onsite eatery for lunch and dinner was closed. This hotel is a couple blocks away from the Space Needle and has a cool view of it from their front door. Tragically, on this first night of our visit, deadly gunfire erupted at the Bite of Seattle Food Festival being held at Seattle Center (the plaza surrounding the Space Needle) resulting in three bystander deaths and several others wounded. It was scary and surreal watching the throng of hotel guests come running back down the street all at once to seek safe shelter. I was thankful that we had pivoted from plans to walk over there this night.

On happier notes, here's some information about the hotel's provided cruise shuttle and the view of the Space Needle.

For our Seattle city tour, we booked a small group tour with Customized Tours via Viator. Our previous tour in Ponta Delgada booked through Viator gave me a credit for reviewing the tour so I used it toward the cost to book this one. In turn, I've now reviewed this tour on Viator as well and got another credit to use on a future trip. The tour we used was called The Best of Seattle City Highlights Tour. Visit the link to view the tour description on the company's website where they are currently offering a 10% discount code. Here is the tour information as found on Viator where they are currently offering the tour at the same price minus the code. However, Viator is available if you use a cash back click through site like Rakuten or RetailMeNot for your online purchases. Always comparison shop and save where you can so you can travel more! The comfortable shuttle bus had plenty of seats left for the handful of us who wanted to spread out. The shuttle bus picked up from various hotels in the area giving each group booked a specific staggered time to be outside ready for pickup. We were one of the last to be picked up so it was nice to have that unique time messaged by the tour company so we weren't sitting outside on this windy morning until we needed to. The last couple to be picked up had just gotten to their hotel after disembarking their Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean so it can also be a great way to spend time waiting for your hotel check in time if you're staying on post cruise.

There were a few steps to climb to get into the shuttle bus. No one on our tour had anything more than a cane but our guide was there ready to help everyone board and descend the steps safely. Water bottles were also plentiful and available for you to help yourself.

Our first stop on the tour inadvertently was to a really nice view of the Space Needle while the guide stopped for some guests who needed a restroom break. Originally, the plan was for this to only be a drive by viewing of the Space Needle.

And for all the FIFA World Cup fans:

Once we were back on the road, our next stop was a drive by of the building used for exterior shots in Grey's Anatomy. Fittingly, in reality, it's a TV studio. Unfortunately, no hot actors who play a doctor on TV were seen.

Next stop gave us a chance to stretch our legs and our selfie arms with a visit to the Kerry Park Viewpoint. Our guide pointed out various sites we'd just driven past, answered questions, and happily obliged anyone who wanted their photo taken in front of the view.

Note the flag flying above the Space Needle is at half staff honoring those who lost their lives the night before.

And for my fellow ship nerds - we got views of cruise ships in port while we continued on the drive. There was a much smaller ship docked on the other side of Anthem of the Seas.

Another overlook stop where our guide pointed out the channel that our cruise ship would be taking. We also stood around long enough to watch a couple seaplanes come in and land.

Our next stop took us to Fremont and some photo opportunities with the Fremont Troll. 

Looking back along the underside of the bridge

On our way out of the Fremont area, we passed by the 16 foot bronze sculpture of Vladimir Lenin. Sculptor Emil Venkov created this sculpture in Czechoslovakia in 1988 but it was toppled during the Velvet Revolution. An American teacher found the statue in a scrapyard and brought it to Washington state in 1993. The statue is still privately owned by the teacher's family and sits on privately owned land The hands of the statue are frequently painted red by protestors and locals symbolizing Lenin's violent legacy.

Our next stop was to the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial at the Fisherman's terminal. Some of our group chose to spend this stop picking up some nearby fish and chips or sandwiches recommended by our guide.

While several of us were admiring the many rows of boats docked here, our guide pointed out one of the more notable dock users - The Wizard - a 156 foot commercial crab fishing vessel featured on the Discovery Channel's reality series' Deadliest Catch. I guess you could say that I saw a TV star today after all!

We next visited the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks where we got an impromptu tour from the outside of the boat tour operator explaining their process to their own tour members as they progressed through the locks. We also got to do some air snorkeling as we watched the fish and the seals looking for their own fish and chips lunch in the open lock next to the tour boat. 

When our guide saw that I was more interested in watching the wildlife rather than the boat tour, he suggested we head down to the fish viewing room to watch them swim past the windows. We sat for a little while watching the windows but didn't see much activity. We met the rest of the group being led by our guide into the viewing room while we took our time walking back up to street level. Thankfully there were benches every so often and loads of time because it was a bit of a trek to walk back up. 

Our last stop was to Pike's Place and the Public Market Center. Unfortunately, this is the only stop that felt like we had way too little time to experience it fully. Our guide said his company had a reserved place to park the bus and had to gently encourage someone to move their car out of their spot at the top of the street. Once parked, our guide had us all chase after him as he turned the corner and walked the few blocks down to the bottom of the street where it dead ends in front of the famous Public Market Center sign. 

We stood in the middle of this seemingly pedestrian only square while our guide gave a long talk about the history of the place. He pointed out the stall known for throwing fish but said that now instead of timed presentations, they only do the fish throwing if they feel like it. Then he spent the next 10-15 minutes pointing out where certain recommended food stalls were located for us to seek and pay for our own lunch. By the time he finished talking, he announced that we now had 15 minutes to get that lunch. Someone in the group protested and our guide agreed to 30 minutes. A few times during the talk and while we scrambled to find food, cars legally and slowly made their way through the crowds of pedestrians. Why if cars could come down and drive through, was the shuttle bus not allowed to at least drop us off at the bottom before returning to the top to park?

Every spot our guide recommended had a line out the door and down the street. We eventually settled on a pop up stand that was selling grilled cheese. You would have thought I was a track star in a former life the way I fought past the throngs of people on the sidewalk until I found an ice cream shop that also sold drinks. In my speed walking I spotted the original Starbucks location but there was no time to stop for pictures.

Back to Dad where we poorly set up our grilled cheese picnic leaning against the back railing of another venue and wolfed down the sandwiches. I tried suggesting we take the sandwiches to go and work our way back to the bus. When Dad didn't seem to understand the rush, I shared my concern that our 30 minute time was dwindling. I must have been speaking a sort of martian language because Dad was still unphased. Once we'd eaten our fill and disposed of our trash, we did the best we could walking back up the multiblock hill with Dad having to stop and rest whenever there was a clear corner to lean on. By the time we turned the last corner and saw the bus, our guide was rushing over to hurry us back onto the bus. It turns out we were the last two to return. Once back on the bus, Dad was surprised to see that we were the last to return and insists he never knew we only had 30 minutes of free time here. 

Given that the facilities around the Seattle Center were locked and closed when we first started the tour, we decided it wasn't worth going back out after this tour just to see if the Space Needle was open to visitors. Instead we ordered in dinner from a restaurant we hadn't been back to since we moved and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching TV.